At First Touch (16 page)

“Quinn,” Helmut barked into the receiver as soon as she answered.

“Hello, Helmut,” she said, forcing herself to sound remotely cheerful.

“Hello, Helmut? Hello, Helmut! I've been trying to reach you for two days and all I get is ‘Hello, Helmut.' Tell me something, Quinn, anything. We need to start filming in five days, and I still don't have a location. I have producers breathing down my neck, actors telling me that they need to take other jobs if this one doesn't come through, a crew that is demanding start and stop dates. And it's too late to find a new location. Much too late. I need an answer, Quinn, and I need one now.”

“I got it,” she said simply.

There was a long silence as if Helmut were too overjoyed to speak. “Please tell me that this is not a joke,” he said, his voice trembling with emotion.

“It's not a joke, Helmut.”

“Quinn, I will never forget this.”

“Just make me a star and we can consider ourselves even.”

“You will be a star, Quinn,” Helmut gushed. “I will do everything in my power to make certain that you come out of this movie with Oscar buzz. And you will.”

“I have to go, Helmut. Merry Christmas. I'll see you next week.”

“Next week? We'll be there tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Christmas Eve is in three days,” she protested.

“Did you hear the part where I told you that we have to start filming this movie as soon as possible? We have to rehearse and block scenes, and there have been revisions to the script. We'll be there tomorrow, ready to move at full speed. Be ready.”

“I'll be ready. I'll see you—”

Her voice trailed off as she heard the dial tone singing in her ear. She tried to avoid the sinking feeling in her stomach that told her she had just made the biggest mistake of her life.

“I
love Christmas shopping. Don't you?” Charlie asked cheerfully as she linked one arm with a glowering Kendra and another arm with Quinn and dragged the two down Main Street.

Quinn straightened her sunglasses and her knit cap with her free hand and ignored Charlie. She wanted to be home, studying the script, memorizing her lines or, more accurately, reliving every moment of her night with Wyatt. She knew that she should have been excited about
On Livermore Road
. It was actually going to happen. Quinn Sibley was going to be in a movie. The first role in her comeback. But, like a high school girl after her first kiss, Quinn could only think about Wyatt. His smile. His hands. Every soft word he had spoken to her last night. Even now, in the cold weather, her entire body grew warm just thinking about last night. Or, even better, waking up all warm and cuddly against his smooth chest.

“And there's just something about Christmas in Sibleyville,” Charlie continued, an unstoppable force of good cheer. “The fresh air, the…Good morning, Harvey—”

“'Morning, Charlie,” a man greeted with a smile, tipping his cowboy hat. Quinn exchanged a look of disbelief with Kendra.

Charlie grinned and continued, “The friendliness, the tinsel…and they're lighting the tree tonight in the town square. Graham says it's an annual tradition. One of the best traditions, besides running around the maypole.”

“Maypole?” Quinn questioned, confused, snapped from her own self-disgust. “Do people still do that?”

“What is that?” Kendra demanded, suspiciously.

“In Sibleyville, they do,” Charlie said, cheerfully, squeezing their arms closer.

“Remind me again why I'm being tortured in Smallville, when I could be in New York City, taking advantage of the Christmas sales,” Kendra groaned.

“Because you don't have any money,” Quinn suggested sweetly.

Kendra pinned her with a hard glare. “At least I can support myself, and I don't have to live off my sister and brother-in-law.”

“Support yourself? You haven't worked in over six months, Kendra!”

“You haven't worked in twelve years, Quinn. And, yes, I'm including your time on
Diamond Valley
in that.”

“Stop it,” Charlie ordered, dragging her sisters to a halt in the middle of the sidewalk. She glared from one to the other, her brown cheeks flushed with anger. “It's Christmas, and we're going shopping to buy presents for each other. For once in our lives, we're going to have a good, normal holiday, with lots of good cheer and happiness, damn it, or I'll…I'll make you two string more popcorn for the tree.”

“Enough said,” Kendra said, pasting an obviously fake smile on her face. “I love Christmas. I love Christmas shopping. I love Sibleyville.”

Behind Charlie's back, Kendra popped Quinn in the back of the head. Quinn automatically repeated in a monotone, “I love Christmas. I love Christmas shopping. I love Sibleyville.”

Charlie's anger melted into a smile and she shook her head. “What am I going to do with you two?”

“Love us,” Quinn said with a sweet smile.

Charlie grinned. “Of course, I do. Even though you two are a pain in the butt, I'm glad you're here.”

“All right. Let's get this shopping out the way, so I can get back to the house and have a drink,” Kendra said, cutting off anymore fuzzy feelings. She glanced at her watch. “We'll meet back here in half an hour.”

“Half an hour—”

Kendra cut off Charlie's protest, “Half an hour, Mrs. Forbes, or you're hiking back home.”

“Agreed,” Quinn chimed in.

Charlie shot them both wounded looks, but Kendra had already stalked off in one direction.

“If she buys me another pair of gloves, I'll scream,” Charlie muttered to Quinn.

Quinn laughed, always pleasantly surprised whenever Charlie said anything remotely bitchy. “I think she just walked into a store with a display case of Isotoners in the window.”

Charlie groaned, then headed in the opposite direction from Kendra. Quinn smiled to herself and began to stroll down the street. She glanced in one store window after the other, but every time she tried to focus on something she thought of Wyatt, hovering above her, the look on his face when he entered her.

She gave up on looking for a gift with the current state of her horny thoughts. Not that she had money to buy her sisters presents anyway. The days of sending an expensive gift and a Christmas card were long over. Now Quinn had to actually spend time with her sisters and hope that was enough.

Quinn stopped in front of a jewelry store. Against her will, her gaze was drawn to several engagement rings laid out on the black velvet display. She chided herself to move on; instead, she took off her sunglasses for a closer look.

She was not the type of women who salivated over engagement rings. Diamonds, sure. Rubies, even better. Emeralds, she would kill for. But boring engagement rings? Still, here she was. Staring at the rings, holding her breath and trying not to make a wish.

“Merry Christmas, Quinn.”

Quinn looked in the reflection of the window to see Dorrie Diamond. Judging from Dorrie's slightly distorted face in the window, Quinn definitely was not her favorite actress any longer. Wyatt had obviously told Dorrie about last night.

Quinn pasted a bright smile on her face and turned to face Dorrie. The image in color was even more transparent. Something akin to disgust flashed in Dorrie's eyes.

“Hi, Dorrie,” Quinn said, brightly. “Merry Christmas to you, too.” For some reason, Quinn decided to hug Dorrie. The two women awkwardly wrapped their arms around each other and patted once, while making certain that no part of their bodies touched the other.

Quinn quickly stepped back from Dorrie and smoothed down her coat. Dorrie stared at Quinn, then averted her gaze. The two women stood speechless for a moment.

Quinn cleared her throat, then said abruptly, “I have to meet my sisters, and I'm late. It was good running into you.”

“I just wanted to talk to you for a second,” Dorrie said quickly, moving to block Quinn's escape route.

“Oh? What about?” Quinn squeaked. She discreetly glanced around the suddenly deserted Main Street. Where were all the witnesses? Where was Kendra? Kendra could bench-press Dorrie. Sure, Dorrie didn't reach Quinn's shoulders, but she looked as if she would scratch and Quinn had a face to protect.

“You know what about,” Dorrie said flatly. “Wyatt.”

“Right.”

“I know that you know that he's had a crush on you for a long time, but leading him on like you did yesterday in my office is not fair to him.”

Quinn bit the inside of her lip and mentally smacked Wyatt upside the head. Apparently he had not spoken to Dorrie yet.

“I was not trying to lead him on,” Quinn said honestly.

“Of course you were,” Dorrie said simply. “And I almost understand it. You're stuck here in Sibleyville for the holidays. You don't have your usual entourage of admirers and you thought why not play with Wyatt a little? He's a decent guy. Even if he has a crush on you, you figure that he would never act on it, unless he had some encouragement.”

Quinn shook her head in disbelief. “Dorrie, you are so wrong—”

Dorrie took a step closer to Quinn, until she was practically breathing in her face. Quinn gulped. She was a lover, not a fighter.

“I like Wyatt, and he and I might have a future together. I don't need you to confuse him. You have your pick of men anywhere you go. I just have Wyatt. Leave him alone.”

Quinn straightened her shoulders and said in a dangerous voice that had made taller women tremble, “Maybe I like Wyatt, too. Did you ever think of that?”

“You couldn't possibly like him. He has nothing to offer you. He's a nobody.”

Quinn felt a sharp stab of anger at Dorrie's description of Wyatt. “If that's how you think of someone you supposedly like, I'd hate to hear how you would describe someone you can't stand.”

“Ask anyone in town how I describe you and you'll get your answer,” Dorrie said in the same soft, dangerous tone.

Quinn smiled slightly at the not-so-hidden insult. “You're not as boring as you look,” she noted casually. “How long do you think you can fool Wyatt?”

“Long enough,” Dorrie said, with the same smile in return.

“Making friends already, Quinn?” Kendra purred, walking to stand next to Quinn and to tower over Dorrie. The hard look she shot Dorrie made Dorrie take several steps back.

“Merry Christmas, Quinn,” Dorrie said with her fake sweet smile, then quickly walked away.

“What did She-Elf want?” Kendra asked, looking after Dorrie.

“That's Dorrie Diamond.”

Kendra's eyes widened in amusement. “
The
Dorrie Diamond?”

“The one and only,” Quinn muttered.

“She looked like she wanted to kick your ass…if she could reach it from her low position on the ground. Did she hear about last night?”

“No,” Quinn said, shaking her head and narrowing her eyes. “And now I have to kill Wyatt.”

 

“You're in trouble,” Graham sang to Wyatt as he opened the door for Wyatt to enter the house.

Wyatt grimaced and walked into the Sibleys' house. He had spent all day tending to his nursery clients and projects around town. He had barely gotten home in time to shower and change for dinner with Quinn at her house. But he had heard from several people in town that Dorrie and Quinn had had a showdown on Main Street and while no one had heard what was said, everyone had seen their expressions. World War III.

Wyatt and Graham walked into the dining room. Wyatt's stomach grumbled at the scent of pot roast and mashed potatoes on the small round dining table, and he was momentarily distracted from his impending doom. He hadn't eaten since lunch.

Then Graham nudged him. Wyatt looked up and saw fire spewing from the eyes of all three Sibley sisters. Even Charlie.

“I'm not with him,” Graham said, holding up his hands in self-defense. He took his seat next to Charlie. That left the one chair between Quinn and Kendra.

Kendra's eyes narrowed at him, while Quinn pursed her lips and glared at him. Wyatt carefully crossed the room and slid into the chair. He leaned over to kiss Quinn on the cheek, but she stopped him with a glare. He didn't care. It had been a long day, he hadn't seen her all day and he had missed the hell out of her. He gently grabbed her chin and pressed a kiss against her lips. He grinned against her mouth when she licked his bottom lip in return.

Kendra snorted in disgust. “Way to give him hell, Quinn,” she muttered dryly.

Wyatt pulled back and grinned at Quinn. He saw the corners of her mouth slightly lift in a return smile even as she frowned at him.

“You didn't talk to Dorrie today,” she said, flatly.

“I didn't talk to Dorrie,” he confirmed.

“Why?”

“I was busy,” he said, avoiding her gaze.

“And scared,” Graham chimed in.

“It's not exactly easy to dump someone…especially when you never really started dating,” Wyatt said, while shooting Graham a look that promised retribution at a later date. “It's a delicate situation.”

Charlie began to spoon mashed potatoes onto her plate. “You should have told Dorrie, Wyatt,” she said.

Wyatt grabbed a bowl of green beans and heaped some on his plate and a smaller mound on Quinn's plate. She gave him a nasty look.

“Yeah, Wyatt. I'm not sure if Dorrie knows that you two haven't started dating from the way she was warning off Quinn,” Kendra said while passing him the plate of roast.

“She was warning you off?” Wyatt asked, surprised.

“You don't have to sound so pleased,” Quinn snapped. “The little runt was on the verge of taking a swing at me.”

“Dorrie?” he said in disbelief. “What did you say to her?”

Graham groaned and shook his head. “Wrong thing to say, brother.”

Quinn ignored Graham and pinned Wyatt with a hard glare. “What? You think I had to say something to make your sweet Dorrie semiviolent? You think she's much too wonderful and perfect to come at me unprompted?”

“That's not what I meant,” he quickly said.

Quinn snorted in disbelief, then stabbed a piece of roast on the platter and dropped it on her plate. She dropped several more pieces on his plate. “Let me tell you about your little Dorrie. She's a barracuda. A pit bull. Or some other obnoxious, small creature. There is nothing remotely sweet about her.”

“Just agree, Wyatt,” Graham suggested from across the table, then winced and glanced at Charlie, who obviously had kicked him under the table.

“I'll talk to her,” Wyatt quietly said to Quinn. “I'm sorry you had to deal with that. I never thought she'd confront you.”